The Ledges
Geez. Oh, where to begin. I guess from the beginning would be best. I had not planned on packing for the weekend until a little too late and consequently
started out on lack of sleep. close to 7 hours in two nights and I got up at 5am to go to
work and then left straight from there for the ledges. well, attempted to at least. It was
about an extra hour drive longer than I thought it was going to be be, but no problem there(at
least not that I knew of at the time), because I was with the Irvman in his wonderful beast of
machinery, the 1970 Buick GTO ragtop (mint condition). that puppy hauls, period. 0 to 60mph
in 2.5 seconds flat. It was a wonderfully beautiful drive and the company couldn't have
been better. We were cranking up the 7/3 CDs and eventually met with chopper at the gate.
He gave us the low down and what was up. we drove around back under the shaded canopy of
trees for almost an hour, trying to find an empty campsite before we ended up
just parking someplace out of the way. the potholes were about the most treacherous
obstacle of the weekend, as we will find out later in the review. finally out of the heat
and under the shade, out of the car and doing things that resemble "the irv
stretch". life is good. by this time the priorities were to find out where i was in
coordination with everything else and to get set up. I usually go in my pick up and hop
under the cap to sleep. so for the first time in three years i was going to a festival
with all the trimmings. tent, sleeping bag and so on. Very relaxing. My home away from
home for a few days. it was a perfect night to look forward to and it was time for me to
go find ol' bill and get the logistics of my duties all figured out and get ready for show
time. i was pretty exhausted by this point, just on sleep deprivation alone, but what I
didn't know and was about to find out, was the combination of my space-headedness and the
ragtop proved to be of serious consequences. Ouch! Lobsters aren't as red as the top of my
semi-freshly shaven bald head. no thinking of putting suntan lotion on while in transport
let the sting slowly set in and now it's time to pay the piper. so it's now close to show
time. the stage was set up so that it was facing toward the shaded camping, with the
quarry off on the left and vending pretty much all around. what were the boys going to
play after being juiced up from not playing for a while? Whatever it would be, I knew they were
going to be primed. rested up and ready to roll. I hadn't seen much of the band up to this
point, except for Steve and ed. and was still wondering if Sharon had made it up. I'll
have to say that there is much improvement on the harmony in Lazy River and Day By Day.
the click got tighter somewhere along the line and it sounded great (not that it doesn't
always). a couple of new treats for me were the second part to Alexander and the little
Maggie surprise out of Clifford. they took a very quick set break and were back on stage
faster than the Sweney picker himself. i really love hearing the masquerade and then as
typical of late, Johnny and Eric started off on doing their drum thing. I was just
thinking to myself that i wish they would bust into something other than Chicago
as a segue from this tune. sure enough somebody was all over that call. Backwoods Rose in late
second set. Woohoo! Soon the show was over and it was time to pack up and head back to the
site and meet up with the people i knew. i decided to get a little giddy and attempt to
hang with the big boys until the wee hours (on no sleep). The funniest thing i saw all
weekend, and i apologize to Irv up front for telling' (although I already asked permission),
it had me rolling'. a bunch of us are sitting around a fire and watching the campfire
embers glow, when a group of people decided to go wander and meander. It ended up it was
just me, Irv and Geena sitting there when Irv decided to go to our site to get a refill.
about 15, to what seemed 20 minutes later I'm wondering where Irv was, as it was only two
minutes to the fridge and back. low and behold, who show up? coming from the opposite side
of where the campsite was, with mud covered halfway between his knees to his ankles,
there's the man himself. I came to realize that he should have borrowed my flashlight and was
actually going to say something when he got back. well, it was just a little too late for
that notion. those potholes that were filled with mud proved to be very dangerous,
especially with about half the people walking around without some sort of light source and
the other half without shoes. to top matters off, after attempting to take a drink from
his cup, Irv says, "it's time for another refill." I thought to myself that was
the goal of his adventure in the first place. it turns out he never made it there.
I about lost it! Okay Irv, I owe you big for this one (unless you want to trade it for that
Wallkkk Reeaaalllll Slllooowwwwww). between my sunburn and his feet, we were looking for a little
more upward adventure the following day. So the canopy of trees kept me cool and
I actually slept till almost noon time. As I awoke to greet the day with a little
Metallica slammed in my ear, I decide it was time to hit the quarry. The sand, the water, and the
ever the master of nemesis to my burn, all rolled up in one for a few hours of mellowness.
it turns out that these three girls were sitting next to me and chopper walks up and i
hear them say something to him about having found someone who taped the Jamaica shows. my
grin cracked a bit and I knew the second I would look over, that Chopp's finger was
going to start pointing. so I said that I did. she requested a copy of the third night and
proceeded to ask me if I remember a wedding proposal being made. Well, guess who? boy it's
a small world. I told her congrats and to email me. eventually I got in the water and wow,
was it comfy. a great relief on a sunny, hot summer's day. Stayed in for about an hour
before hooking up to chat with the farmer j himself. A few crazy stories later
and I'm drinking stout out of a cup. You can now see where the rest of my day was going. as we
caught glimpses of the Sultans of Bing in the background and those guys are
wonderful-check them out if you can), decided it was time for food and a change of
clothes. Kim and I went to the Burrito Bago and hung out with my friend - the Colonel, as
the sprinkles of rain came down. had a few more beers and decided it was time to head to
the campsite for a few more, and to chat with some more friends that i hadn't seen that
I ran into. so it was off to get set up before show time. A lot more people this night and
another interesting evening about to unfold. The boys started out of the gate with awesome
enthusiasm. loner sandwich with a silver train that puts the sparkle in my eye and a grin
on my face. I danced to my hearts content. Riversong was such a wonderful follow up. As a
mere consideration to all the razzing I had given Irv, I decided to plead and beg a
request from Dave right before the show started, for the almighty Walk Real Slow, which
from this day forward, the slow version of this song should be deemed "Irv
style". What a wonderful treat. It is stuck in my head the whole day today. Thank you
Dave. Spiders was a great way to end a set. The rain started to not want to hold off much
longer. It felt good for a bit, until it eventually turned chilly. People were heading for
cover when the boys came back on for the remainder of the show. I hadn't heard "Are
you experienced?" hookah style yet, the Hendrix tune. The transition into through
hiker was very subtle. Steve the Juggler made an appearance on stage with his four glow in
the dark balls. After leaving the stage he suddenly appeared on the roof of the stage
swinging these ropes of some sort that were on fire on the end of them. Eventually the
owners of the place had to ask him to get down for safety purposes. It was cool to
look at for a while. I thoroughly enjoyed "to good friend's past", something I
rarely hear these days. The &"Dire Wolf" caught me entirely off guard. The harmony on
this tune with Steve singing lead, was simply amazing. For only playing this tune once, it
sure was good. time to pack up quickly, as the rain was coming down harder. I ended up
going to bed shortly after the show, half on the account of the rain and half on the fact
that we were planning on leaving early in the morning. so now my sunburned body is home
and relaxing in the AC and typing at you. Sorry for the bandwidth and your time, if you're
still with me at the end. Hope all is well in hookahland and as soon as i evaluate
thetapes, I'll be making an offer. From what I've heard so far, they're pretty sweet.
Peace out.

Blossom Fri!
The weekend started off on an odd note. The boards were on fire with speculation of cop city due to the unfortunate circumstances that had apparently happened the weekend before that some people were even debating on not going. Not us though, no measly cop is going to keep my Ekoostik from me as I had announced many times before this was my Jamaica, hookah being just recently back from their trip that I could not quite afford.
The first set started us off in a Green way then they sent us to the Heavens, to mergatroid that is, a funky Mullins song that gets everyone pumped! When we got to the stage the crowd was sparse but as the song progressed the crowd seemed to grow bigger and bigger people came out of the woodworks, I guess others weren’t going to be frightened away either. As Walk real slow came on I started to notice some new things about Nelsons ledges and the stage area. They of course put newer sand down for our tootsies to walk on which is great for those who like to take their shoes off like me. They also seemed to have put in new speakers on each side of the band, nice ones loud ones! Also the added a laser to shine on the top of the stage in random patterns and waves right where the tapestry hangs above. Evan really spit shined the place up for all of us so let me be the first to say THANK YOU! Walk real slow jazzed and slowly creped by but I would have to say that Dave’s voice was on point, very melodious and yet had a rustic experienced sound as well. Sleepfast brought the vibe back up to a bouncing float. It felt as if everyone was on their toes, we had all been eagerly waiting for the spring hookah at the ledges and it was finally here. As Sleepfast ended the screams screeches and squeals proved to me that we were all home again. Coming back to me was like the boys were telling us yes in fact we were home. The thumping rhythm had us all twirling and jumping. Breathe a sigh of relief everyone, festival season is among us. City of New Orleans is always a treat and I just love how they don’t always save the covers for encore. You could feel the soul in Mullins voice and Daves was like adding cream to black coffee as they paid tribute to a legend. Sweney’s solo was another awesome little tidbit making the song an overall phenomenon. It was almost as if you could hear the entire crowd singing along, we were all in sync with one and other. Peter Tosh’s Burial come next and it paid homage to their recent trip to Jamaica. Cliff’s voice sounded great, I still to this day look as his small frame and not expect a voice that big to come out. The funky Jamaican jam had us saying pass the dutchie, but not to that guy he’s a cop all speculation of course. Next came a song more on the bluegrass side of the field with Silver train, a song that always makes me want to travel the world more. Chicago came next and it is one of those jams that start off on a slower side but crescendos to be a huge number. Riding with the king was last and it was a great way to end the first set. Way of the world started off our second set off on another great note. Steeped into to tears proved the phenomenal power of the Mullins lyrical content which lead us right into a huge almost ten minute helping of yummy Voodoo Stew. For those hungry bellies that still weren’t completely satisfied yet we got our first lyrical sandwich with Intrepid Traveler a extremely tasty bit of Ol’ John Henry in the middle and the finishing touches of Intrepid Traveler. Without any recover time from that we were hit right upside the head with yet another Sammy. Loner is starting to become one of those songs that everyone and their brother know all the words to and we all proved that true when Dave handed off the mike to the crowd and had us finish the opening. As if we were all singular parts of the band we did our part and sang it as loud as we could with incredible heart and soul. They smooshed Loner with another of all Ohio folk’s favorite songs: Ohio Grown. It exclaims the best way to describe this place that sometimes feels as if a prison to us but when were gone for awhile is like heaven on earth. The end of Loner was like a great ending to a phenomenal set! That wasn’t the end yet with a little teaser they left and came back for the encore of Rocky Mountain Way then sent us all to bed. Wow what a night I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us tomorrow.

JamzJoined: July 28, 2009 Posts: 0 Posted On: July 28, 2009

Blossom was a Blast!
My first time ever at the ledges, and it was so amazing!! Seeing the beautiful land and hookah at the same time was a dream come true!!!! My memory is a little fuzzy but i will never forget this weekend.

Blossom Sat!
Saturday started off turbulent mainly because the wind felt as if it was going to lift us up in our tents like when Dorothy was on her way to oz. With the wind aside the day was absolutely amazing the sun was high and warm, the quarry was soft and chill and the polar bears were out in full force. Polar bears? Yes a group of fire blooded individuals actually jumped the cliff of the ledges into the ice cold water below. The day consisted of dancing and swaying to the assortment of bands, frolicking on the beach, hooping around, or just relaxing baking in the sun. When the sun started setting I saw the beach was abuzz with things going on. Being a veteran of Blossom I knew what was coming soon: the skydivers. Every year they have a couple sky divers fly or I guess fall down from an air plane right onto the beach. It’s a phenomenal site to see the precision that these guys possess in order to get on the right timing and direction to land right on the beach. As soon as they landed and all that mayhem ended hookah took stage and we were all ready to start again for another night.
Mullins started our feet out stomping the ground with Washboard Annie then took us into a great version of Thumper. Next they took us on a journey down the Raging River and the guys were on point. Steve’s solo was amazing as always and they really seem to be enjoying this old/new song. After that we heard an actual new song with the new Mullins tune All fall in dreams. Dave came on after to lets us know not to let it get us down because there will always be a Brighter Day. After I felt almost all bounced out Mullins brought they level down a bit with Bluebird which is becoming one of my all time favorite Mullins songs. Mexican opera is always a treat and Three way street kept the tone on a very chill level. Sun goes down was a great way to end the second set off with a bang, jump, knee slap, and bounce. After a short break they started us off again with Ballad of Sam McCully that got us really moving and going. Backwoods rose kept us bouncing off the walls and boogieing. Next was the first Red Newt of 09’ and it Cliff sounded great vocally and on the harmonica. Cripple creek ferry slowed everything down again to a calm trickle like a nice slow float. They brought us back up again to end it with a great mix of Waterbear and Black Mamba that lasted a good thirty minutes of face melting jam. The mix of Dave, John, and Cliff on Waterbear honestly to me sounded a bit off but the harmonies of Black Mamba made up for it. They finished on stage and left to many yells and screams of hookah! They came back on to attempt the Simon and Garfunkel classic Scarborough Fair which to me fell a bit flat but I heard that technical difficulties made it that way and next time it will be on point. I applauded the guys for their attempt on an extremely vocally difficult song. Might I add please don’t play it as an encore, it’s a great song but an encore song it isn’t! Party girl always brings the tempo up on a raunchier note and Keepin’ time ended the weekend on a foot stompin, knee slappin, toe taping, and downright raging fun! It was a great weekend full of friends, family, sun, wind, love peace and happiness. The whole cop situation only dampened the situation slightly but it was not enough to keep us hookahheads down. The weekend in total was a great way to start out a wonderful summer full of music, camping and fun and I personally can’t wait! Let it all begin!

JamzJoined: July 28, 2009 Posts: 0 Posted On: July 28, 2009

Blossom was a Blast!
Day 2 of blossom fun! Waterbear and black mamba was awesome, the whole show was amazing. This was my first time at the ledges, and what a better way to do it than with the Schwa boys! A weekend of endless fun will not soon be forgotten.

Comments: hookahville; also billed: The outlaws, The Flyin'Jays, John Mullins (acoustic solo and with his band), Slap & Tickle, Bob Niederriter Trio, John Kadlecik Band, John Welton and the Awakening *w/John Kadlecik; ^w/Todd Stoops on keys